The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 14, 2006
Filed:
Jun. 24, 2004
David D. Needelman, Torrance, CA (US);
Rongsheng LI, Hacienda Heights, CA (US);
Richard A. Fowell, Rolling Hills Estates, CA (US);
Peter C. Lai, Alhambra, CA (US);
Yeong-wei A. Wu, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (US);
David D. Needelman, Torrance, CA (US);
Rongsheng Li, Hacienda Heights, CA (US);
Richard A. Fowell, Rolling Hills Estates, CA (US);
Peter C. Lai, Alhambra, CA (US);
Yeong-Wei A. Wu, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (US);
The Boeing Company, Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
A system () includes: a) A vehicle () includes an attitude or angular velocity control system (), a plurality of star trackers or star sensors () each having a field of view (); b) a memory () having a star catalog (), an allocated area for a star pair catalog () and a reference table () stored therein; and c) a processor () coupled to the attitude or angular velocity control system (), the star trackers or star sensors (), and the memory (). The processor () populates the star pair catalog (), using the method described herein. The processor () then periodically determines the vehicle inertial attitude or angular velocity or sensor alignment, based, in part, on the star pair catalog () and reference table (). The novel ability of the software to autonomously populate the star pair catalog () allows users to avoid uploading a large amount of data, and the problems associated with such an upload.